ABSTRACT
The European Dosimetry Group (EURADOS) first started performing international intercomparisons for whole-body dosemeters for individual monitoring services in 1998. Since 2008, these whole-body intercomparisons have been performed on a regular basis. In this latest intercomparison (IC2014), 96 monitoring services from 35 countries (mostly European) participated with 112 dosimetry systems. Unlike in the previous intercomparisons, the whole registration, communication and data exchange process was handled by a new on-line platform. All dosemeter irradiations were carried out in the Seibersdorf accredited dosimetry laboratory. The irradiation plan consisted of nine irradiation setups with five different photon radiation qualities (S-Cs, S-Co, RQR7, W-80 and W-150) and two different angles of radiation incidence (0° and 60°). The paper describes and analyses the individual results for the personal dose equivalent quantities Hp(10) and if requested, Hp(0.07), for all participating systems and compares these results with the ISO 14146 'trumpet curve' performance criteria. The results show that 100 systems (89 % of all systems) do fulfil the general ISO 14146 performance criteria. This paper gives an overview on the performance of the participating individual monitoring services and the influence of the dosemeter type on the observed response values.
Subject(s)
Radiation Dosage , Radiation Dosimeters , Radiation Monitoring/instrumentation , Radiation Protection/methods , Calibration , Computer Systems , Europe , Humans , Luminescence , Photons , Radiation Monitoring/methods , Radiation Protection/instrumentation , Reproducibility of Results , Thermoluminescent Dosimetry/methods , Whole-Body Counting/instrumentationABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of an intercomparison for extremity dosemeters organised by the European radiation dosimetry group in 2009. In total, 59 systems were tested during this exercise including ring, stall and wrist dosemeters. A total of 1652 dosemeters were irradiated in the selected fields of photons and beta radiation qualities on appropriate phantoms (ISO finger and pillar phantom) in the dose quantity H(p)(0.07). All irradiations were carried out in selected accredited reference dosemetry laboratories (Seibersdorf Laboratories, Austria and IRSN, France). The results show that, especially at low-energy beta radiations ((85)Kr) and for beta irradiations with large angles of incidence (60°), many tested systems show pronounced under responses. On the other hand, for photon irradiations down to energies of 16 keV most systems showed good results. A participants meeting was held at IM2010 with discussion on both general aspects of this intercomparison and specific problems.
Subject(s)
Film Dosimetry/standards , Radiation Monitoring/standards , Radiation Protection/standards , Radiometry/standards , Ankle/radiation effects , Europe , Film Dosimetry/methods , Humans , Phantoms, Imaging , Photons , Quality Control , Radiation Dosage , Radiation Monitoring/methods , Radiation Protection/methods , Radiometry/methods , Reproducibility of Results , Whole Body Imaging , Wrist/radiation effectsABSTRACT
Within EURADOS working group 2, a system for self-sustained intercomparisons for individual monitoring services for external radiation was developed. With the intercomparison results, the participants can show compliance within their quality management system, compare their results with those from other participants and develop plans for improvement of their system. The costs of the exercises are covered by the participants fees. In this programme, the first intercomparison exercise for whole-body dosemeters has been executed in 2008 with 62 participating dosimetry systems from participants across Europe. In general, film systems show the largest deviations, although the results of some participants indicate that it is possible to achieve results with a film system with similar quality as for thermoluminescence dosimetry (TLD) systems. A second intercomparison has been organised for extremity dosemeters in 2009. For 2010 it is planned to organise a second intercomparison for whole-body dosemeters.
